St. Lawrence Family Weekend: A History of this Special Tradition
Photo via St. Lawrence University
Parents and grandparents, siblings and cousins, aunts and uncles: on behalf of The Hill News, I welcome you to St. Lawrence University for the 63rd annual Family Weekend! A diverse number of events are scheduled for the next three days, leaving no one without something to do. The weekend is a time for families to visit their children before Thanksgiving break, and re-connect with the school that their child has been raving on the phone about each week.
Approximately 600 families convene at the St. Lawrence campus for Family Weekend every year. According to Laura Lavoie, Assistant Director of Student Activities and Leadership, families always give positive feedback, with the music performances and athletic events seeing most attendance, but “their favorite part of the weekend was spending time with their child!”
Timberly Hewitt, Specialist/Administrative Assistant in the Office of Student Activities and Leadership, notes that the highest number of registered families are those of first-year students. The school gears many events to first-year families, to re-introduce parents to campus and to further help with the transition to college life.
In fact, the first Family Weekend (originally named Parents Weekend by then-President Eugene Garrett Bewkes) was started by the Parents Association in 1953. The goal of the Association was “to connect parents closer to the life of the University, encourage other students to attend, raise funds for the University, and sponsor special events just for parents and their St. Lawrence sons and daughters.”
One of those special events was Family Weekend which was originally scheduled in the spring to coincide with Moving Up Day. Earlier Family Weekends look similar to this year’s, with performances by a capella and other musical groups, athletic events, art exhibitions, information sessions on student activities and study abroad experiences, and time to meet the president, staff, and faculty.
Other events included inter-sorority and inter-fraternity song contests, dances at the fraternities for parents and students alike, conferences for parents and students to work on organizing career paths, and even information sessions for parents to cope with empty nest syndrome. Luncheon with the President back in 1953 was $1.25, and tickets to the baseball game were a mere 75 cents.
Over the years, Family Weekend has changed its name, date, types of events, and even form of registration, but its message has been constant. It is a time for students to display to their parents the hard work they’ve put in to their college career, whether it’s being inducted into an honor society, performing in a concert or athletic contest, or presenting research from a fellowship or study abroad experience. St. Lawrence students have lit a candle in the wilderness and have formed a lifelong bond with the school and its community; what better way to strengthen it than sharing it with their families on Family Weekend?